“Getting the Most from Your Digital Camera – Compact or SLR”
Sponsored by *BDIC at UMass-Amherst
Instructor: Annie Tiberio Cameron Sunday October 17, 2010
10am – 3pm Herter 106 (on the UMass Campus in Amherst, MA)
UMass Students: $20 Non-Students: $40
Pre-registration required by emailing Dan Gordon: dgordon@history.umass.edu (or by calling BDIC @ 413-545-2504)
Questions about content: Contact Annie – 802-223-2204 or annie@AnnieCameronPhotography.com
NOTE:This one-day workshop is a preview of a 3-credit course to be offered by Annie through BDIC and UMass Continuing Education in Spring,2011 entitled: “Digital Photography for the Non-Art Major.” There are no pre-requisites for this course other than owning a camera (other than a cell phone camera.) If your major would benefit from proper, skilled use of a digital camera (compact or SLR) consider taking the full course. Goals of the course are:
-learning the parts and operation of your digital cameras on auto and manual
-understanding digital concepts (file formats, white balance, resolution, etc.)
-understanding exposure (f-stop and shutter speed)
-understanding focal lengths and their relationship to images
-learning basic compositional concepts
-practicing learned concepts with your camera
-shooting assignments with and without instructor
-critique sessions
October Workshop Summary:
If the buttons and dials on your digital camera confound you, this workshop can help decode these little computers with lenses. Learn the basic features that make digital cameras tick, understand those new or confusing terms such as resolution, memory cards, optical & digital viewfinders, file formats, white balance, and more. Come learn the basic tips in simple language, supported with comprehensive handouts.
No prior knowledge is required. Information is applicable to point-and-shoot or SLR digital cameras, but not cell phone cameras. You will need to bring along your cameras and their instruction manuals. The goal of this basic workshop is to get the most from your camera by learning to understand and lean on the manual that came with it.
Workshop includes an indoor learning session, a walking campus field session, and a return to the classroom to review and gently critique the results of the field work. Proficiency with composition is not a factor; understanding how to use the camera is the goal. We’ll break for lunch just before heading into the field. Annie will be available to answer individual questions during lunch. Workshop is rain or shine. If rain, we’ll shoot indoors. Dress properly for outdoor temps.
What to Bring:
Digital Camera (compact or SLR)
Instruction Manual
Charged batteries for duration of class
Pen/notebook for notetaking
Lunch, water, snacks as needed
Optional: laptop
About the Instructor:
Annie Tiberio Cameron is a fine art nature photographer with a special emphasis on teaching. She brings to this workshop over thirty-two years of teaching: elementary school, coordinating environmental education programs for Massachusetts Audubon Society, and photography for the National Wildlife Federation, UMass Continuing Education, Bay Path College and many other institutions. Her photos have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country, received awards and have been published in numerous calendars, magazines, newspapers, and other publications, including two editions of a top-selling Sierra Club book entitled: Mother Earth — Through the Eyes of Women Photographers and Writers, as well as its accompanying postcard book. Annie also tours a narrated photographic slide adventure entitled “Death Valley, Okefinokee and Beyond,” a retrospective of 15 years of Annie’s solo wilderness travel to wild and remote places to photograph.
Annie is a UMass grad with a BS-BDIC degree in Elementary Environmental Education, ’73. Her specialty is teaching photography to beginners and helping them gain a comfort level with their cameras so skill advancement becomes possible. Her website contains many more details about her teaching background and includes a gallery of her work.

*BDIC = Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration: a concentration at UMass where students design their own unique, interdisciplinary major.